RF900 LoRa Telemetry module V1.0

1. General RF900 is a low cost, medium power, high performance transparent two way semi-duplex LoRa modulation transceiver with operation at 169/433/868/915 Mhz. It integrates with high speed MCU from ST and high performance RF IC SX1276. Adopting high efficiency forward error correction with interleaving encoding (FEC) technology, it makes anti-interference ability and reception sensitivity greatly improved. That guarantees good performance in the harsh environment such as some industrial application. The FEC technique is advanced and unique in radio data communication field. RF900 has the RS232 or RS485 interface, that make it is easy to implement wireless data transmission. It is flexible for users to set the baud rate, frequency, output power, air data rate etc parameters. It can transmit transparent data with large data buffer and also can provide over 32 channels. The compact size makes it an ideal option for radio data communication application. - 1-2015-4-12

2. Features 10000 meters of communication distance(300bps) Output power: Max 500mW (27dBm) (7 levels adjustable) Air data rate: 300-19200bps, can be configured through RF tool UART data rate: 1200-57600bps, can be configured through RF tool Frequency: 169MHz, 410MHz - 510MHz, 868MHz or 915MHz Working Current: 450mA(TX), 24.2mA(RX), 1.2mA(idle), 220uA(Sleeping) More than 32 channels parity of series COM: 8E1/8N1/8O1 LoRa modulation Receive sensitivity: -148dBm(@300bps) RS232, RS485 Exceed 256 bytes data buffer Supply Voltage: 4.5 15.0V (the ripple less than ±100mV ) Simply tool for configuration 125KHz, 250KHz, 500KHz Channel spacing Dimension: 79.0mm x 64.0mm x 24.2mm 3. Application: Automated Meter Reading (AMR) Remote control, remote measurement system Access control Data collection Identification system IT household appliance Baby monitoring system - 2-2015-4-12

4. Maximum specification RF900 LoRa Telemetry module V1.0 Symbol Parameter Min Max Units VCC Supply Voltage 4.5 15.5 V TOT Operation Temperature -30 85 HOH Operation Humidity 10% 90% TST Storage Temperature -55 125 C 5. Pin Out: RF900 RS232 port has 9 pins. Refers to the Table 1: RF900 RS232 port Pin NO. Pin Name Description 1 NC Leave unconnected 2 TXD Serial output 3 RXD Serial input 4 NC Leave unconnected 5 GND Ground 6 NC Leave unconnected 7 NC Leave unconnected 8 NC Leave unconnected 9 NC Leave unconnected Table 1: Pin definition of RS232 port - 3-2015-4-12

RF900 RS232 port has 5 pins. Refers to the Table 2: RF900 RS485 port Pin NO. Pin Name Description 1 VCC Power supply DC 5V-12V 2 GND Grounding of Power Supply 3 485A/TXD Serial input, 485+/485A 4 485B/RXD Serial output, 485-/485B 5 Adaptor power port Adaptor power input. Table 2: Pin definition of RS485 port 6. Working mode a. Standard mode Standard mode is also called transparent mode in which the module receives from or sends data to the host through serial port (RS232 or RS485) at preset data format and users don t need to care about the proce ss of data inside the module. The AUX pin of RF900 will give indication about the data IN/OUT of serial port 2ms in advance in order to wake up the host. - 4-2015-4-12

Timing Sequence in Standard Mode b. Low power mode In this mode RF900 enables serial port and CAD monitor which means the module monitors the wireless link periodically. When it detects the wireless signal in the wake-up period, it will open the receive circuit, pick out the effective data and transfer it to the host through the serial port. The AUX pin will produce a low level signal 2ms in advance to inform he host that the data comes. Timing Sequence in Low Power Mode c. Sleep mode In this mode most functions of the modules are disabled so if two modules are set to the Sleep Mode, they can t communicate with each other so one module must be in Low Power Mode. Comparing to Low Power - 5-2015-4-12

Mode, the modules in SLEEP MODE will not enable serial port and only keeps CAD monitor. When it detects effective wireless signal, it will then enable the serial port. If there is no data In/Out in 1 seco nd, it will close the serial port and continue the CAD monitor 7. Dimension Timing Sequence in Sleep Mode - 6-2015-4-12

Figure 1: Size of Module 8. Parameter Configuration Through serial port or using setting tool Rf-Tool, users can configure relative parameters such as frequency, UART rate, air rate, checkout mode and so on. It is very simply for configuration. Based on different requirement, all options can be selected visually. It is shown in Table 3 and Figure 3. Parameter UART area RF frequency RF mode RF_Factor RF_BW Node ID Description The values are fixed at 9.6k bps & no parity check. It indicates the center frequency of RF carrier Standard mode, Low Power mode Lora spreading factor. Larger value means higher sensitivity but longer air transmission time Lora bandwidth. Larger value means lower sensitivity. Recommended value: 125K. Reserved - 7-2015-4-12

Net ID Power Serial baudrate Serial parity RF900 LoRa Telemetry module V1.0 Only the modules with the same network ID can communicate with each other. It can avoid interferences from irrelative modules It is used to set the output power of RF900. There are 7 power levels. The 7 means the max. output power---20dbm and 0 means the lowest output power. It defines the data rate between RF900 and the host It defines the parity check between RF900 and the host Table 3: Parameter Specification Figure 2: Indication of TX power level - 8-2015-4-12

Figure 3: Interface of RF Tool Users can configure the parameters (frequency, data rate, output power, RF Factor, RF Bandwith etc.) through PC or in circuit. Setting through PC. RF900 port is UART/TTL. When RF900 connecting with PC, users need to use USB adapter. AppconWireless provides USB adapter as accessory. The schematic is shown in Figure 4 Firstly users connect converter board to PC through DB9 cable and open RF Tool, then insert module into converter board. After that, the status column of RF tool will give a indication Found Device. Users then can read/write the module. If users connect USB converter, USB drive PL-2303_Driver_Installer need be installed firstly. The drive has different version for different OS. USB converter has five wires with five different colors: Black, Red, Blue, Yellow, Green. Black wire is GND pin. Red wire is VCC pin. Blue wire is TXD pin. EN pin and SET pin should be connect to GROUND. - 9-2015-4-12

Figure 4: The connection diagram Setting in circuit. Users also can use microcontroller to change the default parameters. The work mechanism is the same as in PC. Sync word ID code Header Command Length Data CRC End code 0xAF 0xAF 0x00 0x00 0XAF XX YY LEN XXXX CS 0X0D 0X0A RF900 Command Structure Notes: 1. The ID code is 0x00 0x00 in command. 2. In command code, XX in sending command is 0x80 and in response command is 0x00. YY is the command type. The work mode of YY TYPE YY TYPE YY TYPE YY TYPE YY TYPE 0x01 write 0x02 read 0x03 standard 0x04 Central 0x05 Node Command Type and Value 3. Length refers to the data bytes between Length byte and CRC byte which the two bytes are not calculated in the length. 4. Data refers to the detailed parameters which need to be changed. - 10-2015-4-12

Baudrate Parity Frequency RF_Factor Mode RF_BW ID NetID Power Parameter Sequence in Data Section Parameters Length Values Baudrate 1 byte 1=1200, 2=2400, 3=4800, 4=9600, 5=19200,6=38400, 7=57600 Parity 1 byte 0=no parity check, 1=odd parity, 2=even parity Frequency 3 bytes The value=frequency/61.035. E.g. For 433MHz, the value= 433000000/61.035 RF_Factor 1 byte 7=128, 8=256, 9=512, 10=1024, 1=2048, 12=4096 Mode 1 byte 0=standard, 1=low power, 2=sleep RF_BW 1 byte 7=125k, 8=250k, 9=500k ID 2 bytes 0x0000 ~ 0xFFFF, high byte first NetID 1 byte 0x00~0xFF RF_Power 1 byte 1=9dBm, 2=12dBm, 3=15dBm, 4=18dBm, 5=20dBm, 6=24dBm, 7=27dBm Parameter Length & Value Range 5. CS refers to CRC code which is the remainder of the sum of data section divided by 256 In order to understand the command, the section will demonstrate the use of commands by some examples. Write Command Code: 0x01 Command: 0xAF, 0xAF, 0x00, 0x00, 0xAF, 0x80, 0x01, 0x0C,... CS, 0x0D, 0x0A Response.: 0xAF, 0xAF, 0x00, 0x00, 0xA F, 0x00, 0x01, 0x0C,... CS, 0x0D, 0x0A Read Command Code: 0x02 Command: 0xAF, 0xAF, 0x00, 0x00, 0xAF, 0x80, 0x02, 0x02,0x00,0x00,0x91, 0x0D, 0x0A Response.: 0xAF, 0xAF, 0x00, 0x00, 0xAF, 0x00, 0x02, 0x02,0x00,0x00,0x91, 0x0D, 0x0A - 11-2015-4-12

Standard Mode Command Code: 0x03 RF900 LoRa Telemetry module V1.0 Command: 0xAF, 0xAF, 0x00, 0x00, 0xAF, 0x80, 0x03, 0x02, 0x00, 0x00, 0x92, 0x0D, 0x0A Response.: 0xAF, 0xAF, 0x00, 0x00, 0xAF, 0x00, 0x03, 0x02, 0x00, 0x00, 0x92, 0x0D, 0x0A Central Mode Command Code: 0x04 Command: 0xAF, 0xAF, 0x00, 0x00, 0xAF, 0x80, 0x04, 0x02, 0x00, 0x00, 0x93, 0x0D, 0x0A Response.: 0xAF, 0xAF, 0x00, 0x00, 0xAF, 0x00, 0x04, 0x02, 0x00, 0x00, 0x93, 0x0D, 0x0A Node Mode Command Code: 0x05 Command: 0xAF, 0xAF, 0x00, 0x00, 0xAF, 0x80, 0x05, 0x02, 0x00, 0x00, 0x94, 0x0D, 0x0A Response.: 0xAF, 0xAF, 0x00, 0x00, 0xAF, 0x00, 0x05, 0x02, 0x00, 0x00, 0x94, 0x0D, 0x0A Please note that the working modes changed by the 0x03, 0x04 and 0x05 commands will not be written into nonvolatile memory so the working mode will be restored to the former mode before change after power-off. Users can use the WRITE command to change the working mode of module to standard mode or low power mode but the sleep mode will be restored to standard mode after next power-on even if the WRITE command is used. 9. Application Schematic: The connection schematic between RF900 and MCU or terminal is shown as below. The parameter of RF900 serial port must match with MCU or terminal s (RF900 has the same serial port baud rate and parity style with MCU or terminal). Two or more RF900s in a system should have the same parameters such as TX/RX frequency, air date rate and RF channel. - 12-2015-4-12

Caution: 1. When RF900 is installed, make sure the antenna is far away from device to enhance the performance. 2. RF900 should have the same common ground with MCU or terminal. Otherwise it may cause the module irregular working. 3. When RF900 works normal, DO NOT touch the module and antenna. Figure 7: Connection between Module and Device(TTL/RS232 port) Figure 8: Connection between Module and Device(RS485 port) - 13-2015-4-12

10. Constructing Network (one point to multi-point): RF900 LoRa Telemetry module V1.0 RF900 is a semi-duplex module, which can be communicated by point to point or one point to multi-point. In the second mode, user needs to set one master module, while the others are slave modules. Every module must only have one unique ID. The coordination of communication is controlled by the master module, which sends data or commands including ID information. All slave modules can receive the data packets, and compare the ID with itself. If they are matched, the module will deal with the data packets. Otherwise, it will discard them. In order to avoid interfering each other, only one module can be in transmitting state when the network is working. RF900 can set many different frequencies so that many networks can work in the same place and at the same time. User should pay attention to the following questions based on the complex transfers in the air and some inherency characteristics of wireless communication: 1)Latency of wireless communication The wireless terminal keeps receiving data packets after waiting for a while to ensure no data any more. There should be tens to hundreds mil-seconds latency from transfer to receiver (the exact latency depended on UART rate, air rate and the size of data package). In addition, it also need consume some time to transmit from module to terminal, but the delay time is permanent in the same condition. 2)Data flux control Although there is a buffer zone with 256 bytes in the wireless module, when the UART rate is higher than the air rate, there must be a problem about the data flux. It may cause to lose some data because the data overflow from the buffer. Under this condition, it must be ensured that the average UART rate should NOT higher than 60 percent of the air rate. For instance, the UART rate is 9600bps, the air rate is 4800bps. If UART rate is the same as the air rate, the only way is to interval the transmitting time. If terminal transmits 100bytes to UART every time, it will take 104ms every time. (104ms/0.6)*(9600/4800) =347ms. So if the interval time that terminal transmit 100bytes to UART should NOT less than 347ms every time, those mentioned problems can be avoided. 3)Error control The wireless network module has strong capability of anti-interference because of the high efficiency - 14-2015-4-12

checking error correction with interleaving encoding technology. However, when it is in a bad circumstance that has strong electric interference, the data may be lost or receive some error data. User can increase the development of the system link layer protocol. For instance, if user can increase TCP/IP slip window and repeat transmitting functions, it will improve the reliability and ability of wireless network communication. 4) Selection of antenna Antenna is a very important factor of the communication system. The quality of antenna impacts the capability of communication system. So user should strictly choose the quality of antenna. Generally speaking, it mainly contains two points: the type of antenna (size) and its electric capability. The antenna must be matched with the frequency of communication system. 11. Q&A: Questions and Answers Can not communicate between two devices 1.The communication protocol is different between two modules, for instance: data rate and checkout. 2.The frequency or RF data rate is different between two communicated modules. 3.They are not the same kind products. 4.The connection between module and terminal is wrong. 5 The module is wrong. 6.The setting of EN is wrong. - 15-2015-4-12

7.The communication distance exceeds the range, or the connection of antenna is bad. Short communication distance 1.The supply voltage exceeds range 2.The ripple of power is too big. 3.The connection of antenna is bad or it is a wrong kind of antenna 4.Antenna is too close to the surface of metal or the ground 5.Receiving circumstance is very bad, for instance buildings and strong interference. 6.There is interference of the same frequency Receive wrong data 1.Wrong setting of COM, for example, Baud rate is wrong 2.The connection of UART is wrong. 3.The cable to the UART is too long. - 16-2015-4-12

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